The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for creating machining region data used for boring by NC (numerical control) cutting from CAD (computer aided design) data obtained by a CAD system.
A conventional apparatus for creating a machining process drawing is disclosed in, Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 10-49214. As shown in FIG. 14, this machining process drawing creation apparatus includes graphics input means 101 for inputting CAD part drawings and material shapes to create external outline shapes and hole outline shapes, means 102 for providing attributes of machining in directions perpendicular and parallel directions to a machine shaft, and surface kinds such as an end surface, outer diameter surface or inner diameter surface by indicating the machine shaft and the machining direction relative to graphic elements constructing the external outline shapes, the hole outline shapes and the material shapes in CAD part graphics, means 103 for overlaying and arranging the outline shapes and the material shapes to create shapes of machining regions formed by the graphic elements constructing the outline shapes and the material shapes, means 104 for creating machining shapes in a machining process by expansibly and contractibly deforming the shape of the machining regions according to the graphic attributes, and means 105 capable of storing the data processed by each the means and referring to the data if desired.
In such a conventional machining process drawing creation apparatus, the machining process drawing for creating NC machining data for boring can be easily created on the basis of the CAD part drawings, and creation of attribute data is facilitated with reference to the graphic elements constructing shapes of the boring. When the number of boring shapes is small, there is no problem in creation by the machining process drawing creation apparatus, but when the number of boring shapes increases, the attribute data is created according to the number of borings, so that the creation of the attribute data concerning the boring shapes becomes difficult.
Therefore, it is an object of the invention to simplify input of boring information for multiple borings when performing the borings based on CAD data.
A machining region data creation apparatus according to a first configuration of the invention, which decodes inputted three-dimensional shape data to create machining data for machining a work material based on the decoding result, comprises machining finish shape input means for inputting three-dimensional finish shape data, boring region extraction means for extracting shapes of boring regions based on the inputted three-dimensional finish shape data, boring region analysis means for analyzing the shapes and features of the boring regions based on three-dimensional shape data of the boring regions, and boring region classification means for classifying the boring regions based on the shapes and the features of the boring regions.
A machining region data creation method according to a second configuration of the invention, which decodes inputted three-dimensional shape data to create machining data for machining a work material based on the decoding result, comprises the steps of: inputting three-dimensional finish shape data, extracting shapes of boring regions based on this three-dimensional finish shape data, analyzing the shapes and features of the boring regions based on three-dimensional shape data of each the boring region, and classifying the boring regions based on the shapes and the features of the boring regions.
A machining region data creation apparatus according to a third configuration of the invention comprises means for calculating bore diameters of the boring regions and directions of machine shafts as the boring region analysis means.
In a machining region data creation method according to a fourth configuration of the invention, the step of analyzing the shapes and features of the boring regions based on three-dimensional shape data of each the boring region is performed by calculating bore diameters of the boring regions and directions of machine shafts.